We're going. That clock up there, I was told was wrong. It is. So I'm I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting to order. This is the City of Tarpon Springs Board of
Adjustment meeting of June 24th, 2026. The time is now 6:30 p.m. and I will call the meeting to order. And I think you may have
heard that our beloved chairperson is here tonight, but he's a little under the weather, so I'm going to be chairing as vice chair the meeting tonight. And thank you,
Miss Siegfried, would you please do the roll call? Of course. We have Chairperson Grossman here, vice chair Rich
here. Miss Turner present. Mr. Fuchs here. And Mr. Woods is absent today. Thank you so much. Our attorney, Mr. Saltzman.
Would you like to make any announcements or. I'm ready to read the quasi judicial, if that's how you want me to go. Okay. This is a quasi judicial
proceeding where the board acts in a quasi judicial rather than a legislative capacity at a quasi judicial hearing. It is not the board's function to make law, but rather to apply law that has already been
established in a quasi judicial hearing. The board is required by law to make findings of fact, based upon the evidence presented at the hearing, and apply those findings of fact to previously established criteria
contained in the Code of Ordinances in order to make a legal decision regarding the application before it. The board may only consider evidence at this hearing that the law considers competent,
substantial and relevant to the issues. If the competent, substantial and relevant evidence at the hearing demonstrates that the applicant has met the criteria criteria established in the Code of
Ordinances, then the board is required by law to find in favor of the applicant. By the same token, if the competent, substantial and relevant evidence at the hearing demonstrates that the applicant has failed to meet the criteria
established in the Code of Ordinances, then the board is required by law to find against the applicant. Does anybody have any ex parte communication
to declare? I don't have ex parte communication. I don't think it counts as that. But I do live in point. Alexis. It's not a conflict of interest, but
I did sit in on one of our architectural review committees as a citizen when some information was shared. But it
wasn't it wasn't the case. Okay, so there's no information that you received that that the rest of the board needs to hear before. No, sir. Okay. And does anybody have any conflict? And
what you said is not a conflict. So we're good with all that. Okay. If you're going to testify, please stand and raise your right hand. Are you all
going to speak? Okay, well, then we'll swear you in. Then you swear or affirm your testimony before the Board of Adjustment shall be the truth, so help you I do. Okay, great.
Thank you. At this time, we'll be calling on item 26-31. That is before us tonight for let's
see, it's a application to request the reduced required rear yard setback to 16.85 3.15ft less than required for
the purpose of constructing an above grade deck on the backside of a home. And at this time, I'll call upon Miss Keen to present the city's report.
Okay. Thank you. Ali Keene, interim planning Director. The property again, is located in the Point Alexis South subdivision. It's at the corner of south South Pointe Alexis Drive and Marsh View Lane. It's
outlined in red here. This property, as well as all other properties in the area, are in the are 100 single family residential zoning district. The applicants are here this evening requesting variants
approval to reduce the required rear yard setback. And this is for the purpose of constructing a new above grade deck in the rear of their property. Again, this property is in the Point
Alexis South subdivision that does establish specific setbacks for that development. For this case. In this property, the minimum rear yard setback is 30ft. However, the Land
Development Code does allow for above grade decks to extend up to ten feet into any required setback, but no closer than 15ft to the rear lot line. So in this case, the minimum
setback for the deck is 20ft. And as you can see on the site plan, the proposed deck, which is the area shaded here in orange for the most part, is within that minimum setback line area, with the exception
of a small portion, about 3% of the footprint encroaches into the setback and is about 16.5ft from the rear property line.
The Point Alexis subdivision also requires a minimum separation between buildings of 15ft. The proposed deck is going to be matching the side setback of the existing home,
and it will maintain about a 24 foot separation from the adjacent property. There are few lot conditions to consider with this application. It was platted in 1986. The home was
built in 2013. It is a corner lot that has curved front and side property lines that essentially pushes the home closer to the one side, and it has an angled rear lot line that helps to make a smaller
rear yard and creates some unique challenges with putting a deck on the property. Here are the elevation drawings provided. You can see the existing rear elevation. The proposed rail elevation with
the second story deck. The staircase will extend to the opposite side and not encroach into the setback. And here are your review criteria and I'm
happy to answer any questions. Okay. Does any of the board have questions for Miss Keane. Yeah I do, I do have a question.
I think back to slides. Yes. Right there. So the the setback is from building to building, not from property line to
building. Correct? Yes. Okay. All right. That's the only question I have. I have a question, if I may. Yes, sir.
On right above that 24. Is that a slab? This right here. It's an existing concrete patio. And is that in compliance with the
setback that exists. So at grade improvements or patio does not have a setback minimum setback requirement. The proposed deck is going to be generally in the same area as that. But anything at grade
above, basically below a certain height does not have any setback. Okay. But it's consistent with the same. I would assume that this proposed deck would go over the top of
that. Is that correct? Yes. And its current footprint there, I believe it's slightly larger, but I can let the applicant clarify that if you need to. Thank you, Miss Turner. Yes. Question please. So speaking of
the mic, please. There we go. The point Alexis. Setback requirements. I'm assuming that's something that would be between the homeowner and the point. Alexis. Or architectural
whomever their governing body is. And regardless of what direction we go. So this was something that was established back when the development was platted and planned. So those
are their setbacks. So we do not look at the 100 setbacks for this development. Specifically we look at the point Alexis development. This is very similar to new planned developments that come through the process. They may have some
specific requirements. So we do enforce these setbacks for the neighborhood. Okay. So then the 25 versus 24 foot, is that
accounted for in this? The setback variance that we are being presented with today. So the separation here that I'm pointing out is just showing that the proposed deck still
complies with the side setback. So the only variance variance request is from the rear. So from this corner of the proposed deck to the rear property line. Okay. Okay. That's what I thought was our
that little corner. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else have any additional questions for Miss King. No thank you. If the
applicant would like to say any additional information, you are welcome to do so. At this time, you're not required to. Okay. Thumbs up to Ali's presentation.
Okay. Does. Unless someone on the board has a specific question for the applicant that wasn't addressed with Miss Keane. Okay, okay. Okay,
everyone. Okay. All right, all right. Okay. Seeing no members from the public. I don't think we have to take any public. And
we received no written correspondence. Is that correct? Yes. Correct. We have not received anything. Okay. Thank you. All right. Would someone
like to entertain a motion or have any additional comments before making a motion? I have no comments and would make a motion to approve. I'll second
hearing a motion and a second, could I ask the Secretary to roll call Mr. Fuchs? Yes, miss
Turner, yes. Vice chair. Rich. Yes. Chairperson. Grossman. Yes. Okay. Thank you so much. At this time, congratulations on having your variance approved.
And you can work with the city staff to get what you need to proceed. Okay. Thank you. You're good. Yes, sir. Thank
you. Yes, yes. Although our meetings can be very entertaining at times, you might want to stay to hear the approval of the minutes, but
you're not required to. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Okay. Any other issues before
we take the approval of the minutes? Do I hear a motion to approve? Would you want to do them separately? You can do them together. Together? Okay.
I'll make a motion to approve minutes. I'll second a motion and a second. Madam Secretary, Mr. Fuchs. Yes, miss Turner?
Yes. Vice chair. Rich. Yes. Chairperson. Grossman. Yes. Okay. Perfect. Any staff or board comments? I have nothing.
There is one application for the July meeting. That's it. Would it be possible for you to send us the dates again for the rest of the calendar year? Yes. Yeah. And just just so you all
know, the July meeting is the 22nd, but I'll send out the calendar again. I know we did do a vote to change or a email pool to change the September
meeting. Yeah. Okay. We have the September meeting scheduled for that. So you don't have any applications on this currently.
Okay. Thank you. Anyone else have any? Actually, because I had asked our council about the memo we received regarding
submitting any notes that we might make. So could you please share with the rest of the board so public records are any notes that you make that have
anything to do with your decision making or interaction on this particular board? So if you were just say, generally putting some thoughts together
that, hey, I need to ask this question or looking for this response, we would use that as a public record that you would submit in so that we don't have any questions regarding that. If it really has nothing to do
with your thought process and we don't need it. So for example, if you just had the code sections that you wrote down, that's not has nothing to
do with your thought process or your decision making. If you made notes, for example, and you know that that I ask you all, have you had any communication? If, for example,
somebody had sent you a, you know, please consider this or, or I would like you to vote one way or the other. That obviously is a public record. So if you have any questions,
when you're when you're doing them, just let me know because we'd rather take care of this now. Because what happens is if you don't have the record, then
we have a problem or you have a problem, we don't have a problem, you have a problem. And it's hard to once you've left the meeting, you probably don't keep them. So then we
have a an issue that we have to deal with. And I don't want you to have an ethics complaint or something like that. Usually these only happen in controversial situations where there's a split vote or
something along those lines. And people see, you know, you're writing something or looking at something. So it doesn't happen all the time, but I'd rather just have you do
it and let's just get used to it. If you're going to take notes or bring notes. Now, the interesting thing is, and it made me think about this, is that sometimes you put it on
your phone. And here's the problem with that is that you can eventually somebody can go to a judge and have your phone looked at, and then you don't have your phone for a quiet period of time. While people
are looking through your phone at things that maybe, you know, you want to keep private. So that's the technology is opened up, a whole nother wave of
looking for things, you know, as that might influence you. So that's why we ask that you make the declaration and then, you know, just make sure that if you have some notes that you
give them it. Thank you. Question for you. If we just do highlighting, like if we're just highlighting things on it, not making notes, do we need to turn those in or no, only if
document is already in. We have that document. If your highlight you're highlighting something we've given you, right? Is that what you're talking about? Yeah. No, we already have that document.
Okay. But if you were making notes on it, you know, then you would write, okay, this or what's this mean kind of, you
know, those kind of things. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments for the good of the
group? No. Okay. I'll adjourn the meeting at 6:42 p.m. Thank you very much. They don't have
any notes, I saw that. All right.